Katja Petrowskaja: Als wäre es vorbei

Reading and Discussion

As If It Were Over
Texts from the War

How does war change images? How does it change the way we see? How does it change those who endure it or those who witness it? With her photo columns, whichappearedin theFrankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitungbetween February 2022 and fall 2024, Katja Petrowskaja has unwittingly chronicled the war. It begins on the eve of the conflict, with a landscape in Georgia along the Great Military Road. Animals. The threat of war hangs in the air. On the next page, the cry: “My Kyiv!” The incomprehensible reality of war, the intrusion of the monstrous into one’s own life.
Katja Petrowskaja, born in Kyiv in 1970, has lived in Berlin since 1999. She has been a columnist for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung since 2011. Her literary debut,*Vielleicht Esther*(2014), has been translated into more than 30 languages and has received numerous awards. In 2022, the essay collection*Das Foto schaute mich an* was published, followed in 2025 by the essay collection*Als wäre es vorbei. Texte aus dem Krieg*.

Katja Petrowskaja (Prose)
Martin Jankowski (Moderator)

The Most Beautiful German Books of 2025 (Longlist)
Horst Bingel Prize for Literature 2024

The event will be held in German.